October 29th, 2008
We thought the last video clip we posted was pretty good…and then we got the clip below from Louisa Mak taken on a 2003 Spitsbergen cruise!
If you’ve ever wondered what you might see on a Spitsbergen cruise, Louisa’s video gives you a great idea of the possibilities. Starting with two polar bears fighting over a seal, it also shows a bear coming a few feet from the bow of a ship, frolicking walruses, a dive-bombing arctic tern and a black guillemot swimming. Just a few of the sights you might see on a given day in Spitsbergen.
Thanks for sending the video, Louisa—it’s thrilling stuff to see! You can see some more of Louisa’s excellent wildlife photos on her website http://louisamak.com/.
Tags: hunting, polar bears, seals
Posted in Spitsbergen |
October 27th, 2008
On a 2006 Spitsbergen cruise, our ship came upon this polar bear with a fresh seal kill. The bear proceeded to drag the seal through the water and over the ice before it eventually fed on it. What a thrill it was to see this sort of polar bear behavior out on the ice!
Tags: hunting, polar bear, seal
Posted in Arctic, Spitsbergen |
October 25th, 2008
We thought the last video clip we posted was pretty good…and then we got the clip below from Louisa Mak taken on a 2003 Spitsbergen cruise!
If you’ve ever wondered what you might see on a Spitsbergen cruise, Louisa’s video gives you a great idea of the possibilities. Starting with two polar bears fighting over a seal, it also shows a bear coming a few feet from the bow of a ship, frolicking walruses, a dive-bombing arctic tern and a black guillemot swimming. Just a few of the sights you might see on a given day in Spitsbergen.
Thanks for sending the video, Louisa—it’s thrilling stuff to see! You can see some more of Louisa’s excellent wildlife photos on her website http://louisamak.com/.
Tags: polar bears, seal kill, Spitsbergen
Posted in Spitsbergen |
October 24th, 2008
The Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica (LIMA) is a great way to get a birds-eye view of Antarctica. LIMA is joint project between the U.S. Geological Survey, the British Antarctic Survey, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to support the International Polar Year (IPY) which ends in 2008.
LIMA is a hi-resolution interactive satellite map of the Antarctic continent. It comprises over 1,000 individual satellite images, or mosaics, that have been “stitched” together into a single map of the entire continent. In addition to LIMA, the site below includes free downloads of each mosaic and an interactive atlas of Antarctica.
http://lima.usgs.gov/
Tags: Antarctica, maps
Posted in Antarctica |
October 23rd, 2008
This photo of a polar bear stalking walruses was taken on one of our Spitsbergen Cruises by Expedition Leader/photographer Gary Alt. According to Expedition Leader Dennis Mense:
“We spotted this bear ambling along in the pack ice on the northeast coast of Spitsbergen sniffing the air. He then took a certain direction and it turned out that he had detected the walrus. He spent about 45 minutes stalking them. When he got within a 100 yds or so he went into the water (you can see all the water leads in the picure) where the ice had separated and did a water stalk. He went from one lead to the other by diving under the ice; getting closer all the time. He came out of the water when he was about 25 yds away from the walrus, but turned and headed away from them. He then did a 180 and came to within 10 yds of them (this is where you see him in the picture) before the walruses went into the water. It was all very exciting….all to do with timing on our part and the bear’s. I think he was just checking to see if there was a young one that he could ‘dine with!’”
Copyright © Gary Alt
Tags: arctic wildlife, polar bears, stalking, walrus
Posted in Arctic, Spitsbergen |